Computer system and motion control method

Abstract

[PROBLEMS] To naturally and smoothly move a control target such as a virtual actor by using a small data amount and effectively perform data setting for it.[MEANS FOR SOLVING PROBLEMS] A computer system includes means for storing node data on a key frame and edge data such as a transition direction between nodes and a frame rate and execution means for shifting to another node by a morphing process determined by the edge data when shifting from one node to another node. Moreover, when inputting data, node icons are connected by an edge icon so as to enable effective data input. In data registration of the morphing process, feature line data is manually inputted for one image of an image pair and then a feature point in the vicinity of the both ends of the feature line is searched so as to automatically compensate the feature line data.

Description

[0001]This application is a U.S. national stage entry of International Patent Application No. PCT / JP2007 / 066574, filed Aug. 27, 2007, which claims the benefit of foreign filing priority based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-229188, filed Aug. 25, 2006, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to an art in which a computer realizes natural and smooth operation. For example, it relates to a computer system and a motion control method to execute real time control of robots, or virtual person or virtual animal on a computer (hereinafter referred to as “virtual actor”).BACKGROUND ART[0003]Traditional method of controlling a virtual actor on a computer involves calculating all frames that are to be displayed in advance and storing it inside a movie production application such as a Flash (registered trade mark) movie. With this method all of discrete frames are stored in a memory or a hard disk drive, in a ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This approach enables efficient, natural, and smooth motion control of virtual actors and robots with reduced data requirements, allowing for mass production and real-time motion creation without the need for advanced hardware or programming expertise, while minimizing data transmission and processing costs.

Problems solved by technology

However, with this method, for example, 20 to 30 frames are necessary to create 1 second of movie, and the image quality suffers during video encoding process when storing the video as a movie.

As the size of image frame increases, this difference in quality becomes more noticeable.

Also, when a virtual actor is able to talk, all mouth movements must be recorded in advance; therefore, when a virtual actor is to enunciate a new word, a problem arises that a new image sequence must be captured again.

However, using real time morphing technology presumes that a PC is equipped with a graphic accelerator or a vast amount of memory, and hence this is not a realistic option since PCs used by most people are not equipped with graphic accelerators.

Also, in order to create complex and natural appearing motion by a virtual actor with real time morphing, the only method available is to write a computer program, which is a very inefficient process method for designing motion since it requires assets such as programming proficiency or proficiency with programs such as a movie creation application; therefore, a problem arises that much of the demand cannot be fulfilled.

Also, traditionally, it was cumbersome to set hotspots, which are trigger points, to control the motion of a virtual actor.

Further, there arise problems of how to make independent motions of each body part seem natural, as well as how to use less data to make complex expressions such as tilting the head while smiling, angry, etc.

Images